Got Excess Packaging? In England, You Might Go to Court

Remember that story I did back in November about how Alameda has adopted a “Zero Waste Implementation Plan” to push the residential recycling and composting rate up from 71 percent to 100 percent? And get business owners to increase their recycling rate from 23 percent to something higher?

Right now the program relies mostly on local encouragement and education to teach people about why throwing stuff in the landfill isn’t good (think lack of landfill space and greenhouse gas production), as well as how easy it is to recycle (blue bin!) and compost (green bin!) here on the Island.

One of challenges of such programs, however, is that manufacturers themselves tend to use packaging that is not only excessive, but non-recyclable. Here in California, there are efforts underway to make manufacturers more responsible for their packaging (as well as the products themselves.) But just in time for the Christmas trash haul, The New York Times ran a story yesterday about how England is dealing with the packaging problem.

The story focuses on a town in England that is suing a supermarket chain for carrying a meat item that has excessive packaging. Specifically, said meat item is sold on a plastic tray, wrapped in plastic film, covered with a hard plastic cover, and then surrounded with a cardboard sleeve.

Turns out England passed laws against excess packaging in 2003, due to the country’s concerns about a shortage of landfill space. The rules were strengthened in 2008 to restrict manufacturers to using only the amount of packaging necessary for “products’ safety, hygiene and consumer acceptance.”

In response, several manufacturers have reduced the amount of packaging on their candy 25 to 55 percent in the last year. And other companies have signed onto a voluntary package-reduction program, which has resulted in a reduction of 1.3 million tons of food and packaging waste, plus 3.6 tons of carbon dioxide emissions (from manufacturing, transporting and disposing of the materials), the Times reports. And the town of Lincolnshire is hauling a supermarket chain into court.

By the way, here in Alameda, you can’t recycle your paper Christmas wrapping or your ribbons, alas, so they need to be thrown in the grey bin.